Escape

Summary

Escape

“They
didn’t tell me what to expect,” he said. The humanoid creature in front of him
narrowed all six of its eyes. It seemed incredulous, but because it had no nose
to scrunch in doubt or mouth to curve into a frown, he couldn’t be certain.

“You
must be an hallucination, right?” He motioned to it. “How long before it wears
off?”

“I
am not sure what you mean,” it said in a voice that struck the man as feminine,
all lilting and gentle. He had heard the voice and the echo of the words
against the metals walls, yet she had no mouth, so how could she speak? She had
to be an hallucination, he reasoned, pulling his brain away from the edge of
panic.

The
man shifted on the metal table. The creature kept her distance. The fluorescent
light reflected off her bald, oblong head; a long drape of pale fabric covered
her skeletal body, and elongated, multi-jointed arms stuck out of gauzy sleeves,
each one ending in a few needle-like fingers. She looked as though she were
made of putty stretched to its limits.

“A
side effect of what they gave me to knock me out,” he elaborated, his brain
still fuzzy from the drugs. “I signed a contract. It was this or…” He dragged a
finger across his throat; he would probably have deserved death if he had been
caught. Instead he had ensured his freedom.

“The
elixir worked how it should have, Mr….” Her top two eyes changed from a dark,
liquid black to an iridescent silver. The man flinched as something brushed
against his brain. “Mr. Farris.” Her top two eyes reverted to black. Farris
slid off the table and sidestepped toward the door, keeping the creature in his
sights.

“I
don’t know how you know my former
name, but I would like to leave now. If everything worked, then I’m a free man.”

She
tilted her head. “Where do you think you are, Mr. Farris?”

He
reached the door and paused, taking in the metal room. Everything was too long,
too slender, too tall. Including the door. Farris blinked and shook his head,
hoping to force bits of reality through the hallucination; his head swam, but everything
remained solid, unfamiliar.

“I
don’t care as long as the people looking for me can’t find me. Now tell me when
the hallucinations will end so I can get on with my new life.”

“Please
have a seat, Mr. Farris. I need to explain some things.”

He
made no move to sit.

“I
assure you I am real,” she continued. “I think you may be misunderstanding what
has happened.”

“I
read the contract. I’m not an idiot—”

She
held up a hand, and Farris’ mouth hung open as the words he had been about to
say vanished from his mind.

“This
is your new life, Mr. Farris. You see, we have an arrangement with certain organizations
on Earth. You are not in jail, and you will not be killed, which I believe were
your two primary concerns, correct?”

“Oh,
Jesus.” His knees gave out, and he stumbled forward, collapsing into a nearby
chair that was too narrow and high for comfort. His feet couldn’t reach the
tiled floor. “What’s going on? What is this place?”

“We
need test subjects. But we’re not an unkind race; we didn’t want to abduct innocents.
So instead we take people like you off the hands of other humans.”

“I
did not sign up for this.”

“We
don’t require you to sign up for anything. The contract applies only on Earth;
do you remember what it said?”

Farris
closed his eyes. Bits and pieces came back to him, but he hadn’t spent much
time memorizing the contract. He had surrendered his identity—Roger Farris
would be considered legally deceased; thus, all warrants and potential charges
against him would be void. The process was irreversible, untraceable. Exactly
what he had wanted, needed, to escape. Other words from the contract floated
through his brain but resisted assembly into coherent sentences.

He
shot to his feet and went for the door. There was no knob, so he began hitting
buttons on a nearby panel. Nothing responded to his frantic smashing and
pounding. He tried to peer out the thick window in the door, but it was too
high, taunting him from above.

“Let
me out of here!” He spun back around to face the alien creature. She stood much
closer now, about a foot away; her approach had been silent, and Farris pressed
his back against the metal door, its strange warmth leeching through his thin
shirt. All of the creature's eyes turned silver, and something slick and unfamiliar began swimming through the narrow channels of his memory.

“Why
don’t you review that contract again?” the creature said, the words echoing against his skull as she plucked the recollection from him like ripe fruit from a tree. He tried to recoil but was still pressed against the door.

In his memory, he
snatched a folder from a man in a suit and flipped it open. Inside, his face stared up at him from
a grainy photograph, accompanied by a list of his outstanding charges and
alleged crimes on the left-hand side. His name had been blacked out. Clipped on
the right-hand side was the contract.

The jumble of words from his earlier attempt at recalling the contract coalesced into the
crucial sentences. The client agrees to
be subdued and transported to an undisclosed location. This contract is
complete upon delivery to the location; at that time the contractor is no longer
responsible for the client’s well-being.

"See?" the creature said as she withdrew from his head with the unsettling feeling of a tapeworm being pulled from his brain.

“They…they
tricked me,” Farris said, followed by a string of expletives. He slid to the floor and stared at the alien, wondering if she would let him go when she finished her experiments. Wondering if she would ever be finished.

“I’m
sure your victims thought much the same; don’t you?”

He
kept silent out of habit, even though he knew his being in that room was an
admission of guilt.

“Now that you understand, let’s continue with the tests,” she said, reaching
for him with her needle fingers.

Did you enjoy my story? Please let me know what you think by leaving a review! Thanks,
N_DeGennaro

mama2chey00rj06:
WOW!!! I absolutely loved this story. One of the best stories I've had the pleasure of reading. I will recommend this story to everyone. It covers many different genres; full of suspense, mystery, supernatural, romance, and some amazingly-wonderful surprises that will blow you away.

Kirara:
Overall good book with likable characters and an easy to follow plot. Amazing for your first finished book, one of my favorite reads this pandemic crisis. There are only small spelling error and spacing between paragraphs would make it more aesthetically pleasing, but that’s my personal opinion. ...

Cosey Josey:
I wasn't sure what to expect: "another wolf story", but it was such a surprise!Very refreshing actually :D I don't know how you came up with it, but it's one of the coolest concepts I've read about in a while now!Your writing is really good, very pleasant to read. Also, the characters are describ...